AJ CitiesAbraham Adesyan Estate
A walled estate on the edge of Ajegunle, where Navy Town meets Kirikiri. One street, one club, one gate that costs ₦2,500,000.
Football and bottles
The bush
A street football pitch, an unfinished building, three officers on a smoke break, and the beach beyond.
- Where
- South of the estate, by the footpath
- Football
- Creek Rovers vs Palm United
- Bookie
- Tunde Lines
- Shooting
- Bottles only, borrowed shotgun, bush only
- Beyond
- The beach
Take the footpath south out of the estate and you reach the bush: a patch of rough ground with a street football pitch, an unfinished building two floors high and open to the weather, and, beyond the trees, the beach.
Creek Rovers play Palm United most days. The bookie is a man called Tunde Lines, who is not Officer Tunde, which is the first joke anybody makes about him. AJ earns ₦1,000 a break as a ball boy and bets what he can.
In the shade, three officers are on a smoke break that never seems to end. They keep a shotgun, and if you ask nicely they will lend it to you to shoot the bottles lined up in the unfinished building. They want it back before you leave. The bush is the only place anywhere near the estate where a gun is ever fired.
Past the trees, the beach is where you will find Kingston most mornings, preaching to the waves, and most afternoons he is back at the pitch, blessing both teams.
Nearby
The estate The way in The main gate
Armed police, a queue, Sarge's window, a salon and a clothes shop. Everyone starts here.